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Suicide: Pastoral Responses

Author:	Loren L Townsend
Published By:	Abingdon Press (Nashville)
Price:	$16
ISBN:	0687492971

Reviewed by Sheila Martin.

This is an American book, written by an American author and set in an American context.  As such, the majority of the content does not relate to, or connect with, church life and health care in the UK.

There are interesting and helpful sections.  For instance, pages 12-17 give us a history of the criminality of suicide.  The theological thinking that sustained this view created some fascinating tensions in the early church, as they wrestled with whether the veneration of martyrs encouraged suicidal behaviour.

Near the end of the book (pp.111-124) is a whole section about pastoral presence and support for families following the death of a loved one by suicide. This includes a section from Joel Brende (psychiatrist) about tasks and themes in recovery for suicide survivors.

Having said this, in the main body of the text, there was much about the availability of firearms as a suicide weapon, which does not translate too easily to the UK context.  The advice on page 34, telling pastors not to let themselves be shot, so that they can be available for after-care, probably applies in any context!

Likewise, the information and advice about having people admitted to hospital with or without medical insurance, doesn’t cross the Atlantic helpfully!!

My major concern with this book though, was the idea that emerged in several places in the early chapters, that a pastor is equipped and able to assess suicide potential.  Alongside this are statements that most pastors will have the skills needed to make an appropriate judgement about intervention. A tool, developed by the World Health Organisation for physicians and primary care providers to identify clinical depression, is said to be “easily adapted to parish contexts”.  Most alarming was the concept of a scoring system to help pastors assess the suicide potential of a stranger they are in a pastoral conversation with.

Even allowing for trans-Atlantic cultural differences, I found this sort of comment dangerous in its arrogance. Two cautionary comments are offered by the author: one, that it MAY be appropriate at times to refer someone to a mental health professional, and the other that a clinical diagnosis of depression can only be made by a professional. These did little, however, to alleviate my disquiet.

Any minister seeking guidance about good practice following a suicide, or suicide attempt, would do better to look elsewhere. A minister making a study into the subject of suicide may be interested to know that the book ends by telling us that there is an “American Association of Suicideology”!!!